Court reinstates guilty verdict in Colonie robbery case

ALBANY >> The state Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court ruling and has reinstated a guilty verdict in a Colonie robbery case.

According to the office of County District Attorney P. David Soares, the Court of Appeals reversed a state Appellate Division decision in a case involving forcible robbery at Boscov’s department store in Colonie Center and reinstated the verdict reached by a jury after trial.

The case was argued by Assistant District Attorney Steven Sharp of the Legal Affairs Bureau.

On April 23, 2010, Hazel Gordon, then 35, of Albany, was found guilty after a jury trial of one count of first-degree robbery and two counts of second-degree robbery and one count of second-degree assault.

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Gordon stole jewelry from Boscov’s, and then threatened loss prevention officers with a pen when they tried to detain her. She also injured a store employee with her car when he attempted to apprehend her in the parking lot of the mall.

Gordon, who was sentenced to an aggregate term of five years in state prison and five years of post-release supervision, appealed the rulings, and the Appellate Division, Third Department, modified her conviction, specifically reducing the robbery counts to petty larceny.

The Third Department ruled that the people failed to prove Gordon’s use of force was for the purpose of overcoming resistance to the taking of the property or to keeping it immediately after solely because Gordon and her accomplices were not ultimately captured with the stolen property in their possession.

The DA’s Office appealed the ruling, arguing that the lack of possession of stolen property, upon capture, did not render the evidence underlying the purpose of a defendant’s use of force legally insufficient and that the Third Department’s decision rewarded a defendant who uses force to keep stolen property, but manages to dispose of it prior to being caught by the police.

The Court of Appeals agreed and reinstated the robbery convictions.

Assistant District Attorney Steven Sharp argued the Appellate Division’s ruling on April 30.